Carbon in 1951 engine

[Rammy]

I now have my 51 engine apart for some repairs and to fix a loose piston fit problem, like .005 with cast pistons and no real ware problems.
My question is; this thing is making alot of carbon and it is hard and dry, doesn`t look like from oil and I never had to add oil to it, could it be from running over rich carb or is this normal?

[fourthgear]

Rammy
Even if you don't see a visible loss of oil , some does get past the rings and burned up and will cause carbonizing after a length( how often do you pull your heads off ) of time and of course you have all those additives in your fuel that just get burnt on there too.

[Cotten]

Another major contributing factor is the low octane fuel vs. high compression dilemma.
87 octane in an 8.5 to 1 motor will run without major predetonation, but the elevated temperatures accelerate carbon formation.

(Compared to a 5.5:1 flatty, 8.5:1 is high!)

Most of the street motors I dissected through the 80's and 90's suffered from dislodged carbon "infecting" the rings.

....Cotten

[Rammy]

oh well I tryed Billy`s oven cleaner trick on carbon, that is the stuff, works sweet and saves from scratching and digging up your heads